Mork & Mindy

I remember the late summer of 1978, working to save enough money to go back to school. Many days were long and difficult. My friends and I left behind by those that had their finances lined up for classes, were always looking for something to do to take our minds off of what we thought were big issues at the time.

Along came this wacky television show with a guy on it that was absolutely nuts. A bunch of us would get together every Thursday night to see what he would do next. We would laugh our heads off at this crazy show and we wouldn't think of missing one. Mork and Mindy was a bright spot in our day in day out lives.

Mork & Mindy was a hilarious series that unleashed the comic talents of Robin Williams. This series began as a hilarious episode of Happy Days and ended with Mork getting his new assignment to go to the seventies. Mork even went back in another episode of Happy Days (a clip show but still funny). The series had a pretty good cast behind it, but it could have failed without Williams and his unique humor. It remains as one of Williams' best works.

The first season of this show made it the breakout hit of 1978. However, the producers came up with the bright idea of firing much of the original supporting cast (Corad Janis who played Mindy's father Fred and Elizabeth Kerr who played Mindy's grandma Cora) and replacing them with Jean and Remo DaVinci (played by Gina Hecht and Jay Thomas repectively). Another mistake that was made was by removing the broad slapstick that made the show a success and replacing it with more socially relevant stories. Things got so bad that they decided to put a twist on the old bring the cute kid trick and have Mork marry Mindy and have Mork "give birth" to a middle age baby. At least Jonathan Winters was funny in that role. Too bad it couldn't save what could have been one of the all time great sitcoms.

Anyone who was ever a fan of the late Robin Williams has fond memories of Mork&Mindy. Another spinoff from Happy Days where a confrontation between spaceman Willlams, Mork from the planet Ork and Fonzie proved so popular Williams got his own show.

As Mork,Williams was on a mission from his planet to report on Earth and its inhabitants. He chose Milwaukee as his base and every night he reported to his leader Orson. He lived with Pam Dawber, all American girl who was at great pains to explain what this weird person was doing.

In this show we saw Robin Williams open that amazing book of comic tricks for the world. Williams was a genius no doubt, right up there with Chaplin and Keaton. Sad he was such a depressed and tortured soul in real life.

Those reruns are still popular and timeless. Check the show out and sample the first taste the world got of Robin Williams.

MORK AND MINDY was hilarious during its first season, but the producers and the network got so full of themselves over it, they decided "let's improve on perfection!", and naturally, they destroyed the show doing so.

Season 2 was no longer the least bit funny, and season 3 with Jonathan Winters was so absurd (and actually tasteless if you think about it) that the series sank like a stone. None of the "new" supporting characters had any charisma, and the producers' "feel good" decision to start sermonizing to the viewers was as poor a decision as has ever been made in television.

Bottom line: Buy the first season on DVD and enjoy it. Pretend the rest of it didn't happen.